Ed Miliband should spell out how he plans to reform the UK banking sector if elected in May

It is 14 May, the day of Lloyds Banking Group’s annual meeting. Thanks to the reappearance of a dividend, the occasion is less raucous than in recent years. Mention of chief executive António Horta-Osório’s £11.5m pay packet, part of a £30m bonus pool for top managers, generates some gentle booing. But only one irate shareholder suggests the new corporate slogan, “Helping Britain Prosper” should read “Helping Horta-Osório Prosper”.

But, as chairman Lord Blackwell calls for votes on the resolutions before the meeting, there is drama. A nervous figure gets to his feet to announce himself as the representative of UK Financial Investments, the body managing the state’s 24% stake in Lloyds.

Chairman of housebuilder Barratt Developments will take senior role at troubled supermarket as sweeping overhaul continues

Tesco has named John Allan, chairman of housebuilder Barratt Developments and card processor Worldpay, as its new chairman, completing a sweeping overhaul at the top of Britain’s biggest retailer.

The troubled supermarket said Allan, 66, will take over from Sir Richard Broadbent on 1 March, after a year that has also seen the exit of former finance director, Laurie McIlwee, chief executive, Philip Clarke, and head of UK operations, Chris Bush, and the emergence of a £263m accounting scandal.

Tesco’s decision on which stores to close says a lot about how supermarkets operate in cities. Why are supermarkets stacked two or three deep in some areas, while other communities in the same city are neglected?
The best cup of coffee I’ve had in ages was a flat white at Central Bean in Jesmond, near where I live in Newcastle upon Tyne. I’d like to go back for another, but I can’t. The shop has closed. Their last act was to post a sign on the door that read: “Sadly we can no longer compete with Waitrose and their FREE coffee.”
The Waitrose in question – where everyone who holds a MyWaitrose card gets a cup of coffee – is a Little Waitrose, one of the convenience outlets so many supermarkets are opening in cities across the UK. Five minutes’ walk away, Sainsbury’s plans to open one of its Local convenience stores, on an old cinema site. Between the two, there’s a Tesco ...

Tesco’s profits crisis means that plans for 49 shiny new stores have been ditched. Where does that leave places such as Kirkby, Bridgwater and Wolverhampton, where regeneration schemes linked to the supermarket chain now lie in ruins?
At first sight, you would think something terrible had happened to the town centre of Kirkby. And in a way, it has. To all intents and purposes, this is a new town, built in the 1950s and 60s to house human “overspill” from Liverpool, 10 miles to the south-west. Its main feature is the modernist shopping centre that runs down Cherryfield Drive, Kirkby’s main drag – though these days, any visitor’s attention is more likely to be drawn to what sits on the other side of the road: two great mountains of rubble, which then give way to a strip of boarded-up buildings and an expanse of empty houses, some of which are already being demolished.
Look closely, and you can see curtains still draped in the windows, different shades of wallpaper, and, among the nearby debris, traces of ...

By reducing number of products from 90,000, supermarket will be able to cut prices and improve availability on its shelves

Tesco’s new boss Dave Lewis is pulling up to a third of products off its shelves as it calls time on policy that left shoppers baffled by a choice of up to 90,000 products on their weekly shop.

The struggling supermarket, which has lost market share to low-cost, low-choice retailers such as Lidl and Aldi, has called in outside consultants to cut back up to 30% of its products in an attempt to cut costs and make the weekly shop simpler.

Over the course of a generation Tesco steamrollered its way across the country, seemingly building supermarkets in every postcode to cement a dominant position resulting in its tills ringing up nearly £1 in every £7 spent on the British high street.

But at the start of this month new Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis, faced with falling profits and last year’s accounting scandal, not only abandoned plans for 49 new stores but said it would shut 43 existing branches.

Share sale fuels rumours that Newcastle United owner is preparing to offer emergency loan to Rangers

Mike Ashley is selling a 2.6% stake in Sports Direct, worth £117m, in a deal with US bank Goldman Sachs.

The sale of the 15.4m shares, which will reduce his total stake to 55%, is likely to fuel rumours that the Newcastle United owner is preparing to offer cash-strapped Scottish football team Rangers a £10m emergency loan.

Tesco will slash costs and sell assets to fund lower prices and mend its finances, Britain's biggest retailer said on Thursday, as its new boss set out his plan to fight back from years of market share losses and an accounting scandal.

8.06am GMT
Tesco’s final salary pension scheme is being axed
Tesco final salary pension scheme to close - one of the last in FTSE100 but in deficit to tune of £3.4 billion.
8.04am GMT
Many of the 43 stores being axed will be Tesco’s smaller outlets.
Tesco say significant proportion of closures will be express - means job losses lower. Seems odd closing convenience.
8.03am GMT
Shares in Tesco have jumped by 5.5% at the start of trading in London to 191p, as investors give their initial response to today’s news.
But shares in M&S are down 3% after it reported disappointing results this morning.
8.00am GMT
Can we have more details on the 49 Tesco projects that are being cancelled?
Most of the projects we won’t go ahead with are very large stores, Lewis replies.
7.58am GMT
How many employees are still suspended while the investigation into Tesco’s profit misstatements are conducted?
Three.
7.56am GMT
Does Lewis’s plan for a 30% cut in overhead costs equate to 30% job cuts at headquarters?
No.
7.56am ...